Börn (2006)

Icelandic writer-director Ragnar Bragason's dark, brooding ensemble drama Börn follows the entangled lives of a group of lower-rung citizens of Reykjavik as they struggle to just barely keep their heads above water, but all too often succeed in spiritually drowning, through a constant stream of poor decisions.

Ultra-stylized, and shot in black-and-white, the picture opens on Gardar (Gisli Orn Gardarsson), a mob runner who attempts to turn his life around by locating and re-forging bonds with his estranged adolescent son Gudmund (Andri Snaer Helgason). The boy lives with his mother, Karitas (Nina Dogg Filippusdottir). A divorced hospital worker, battling for custody of the girls with her estranged husband, she tries to turn a buck by pilfering and illegally selling prescription drugs from the medical facility where she works.

Gudmund's only close friend in the world is the schizophrenic thirtysomething Marino (Olafur Darri Olafsson) who has a flat in the same apartment block as he does. Marino learns - unhappily - that his mom is dating a stranger, and thus sinks ever deeper into his condition. Meanwhile, when Gardar turns up, looking for Gudmund, Marino instantly dislikes and distrusts him - but Karitas waxes even more vitriolic.

The hostility builds - on all fronts - when Gardar and Gudmund start regularly slipping off and spending time together without telling anyone.

A fine movie. It's sad, it's funny, sometimes difficult to watch but always entertaining and at the end of it you can't stop thinking about the characters and their life. Go see it. Börn is one of those film that stays with you, makes you think, makes you wonder and makes you feel happy about your own life.

The acting is great, one of the best actor being the one playing Guðmundur the eleven year old son of Karitas, the main character.

Maybe one of the reasons the acting is so good, and why it fells so natural is that the film, its script and all is made by the actors themselves in a kind of workshop. It all feels so natural, the filming shot in black and white in one of Reykjavíks least appealing neighborhoods only adding to that feeling.

The music is also very good. All in all one of the best film I've seen recently.

IMDB Reviewer

Note: This is the first part in a series of two. The second movie can be found here: Parents / Foreldrar (2007)